BIG RAPIDS – Doctors and healthcare
workers, editors and lawyers, chefs, computer programmers, police
officers, postal clerks and professors are all among the wide array of
jobs the Michigan Higher Education Recruitment Consortium has gathered
in a new central online portal.

The new Web site, www.michiganherc.org, opens with more than
1,200 job postings at 24 Michigan colleges and universities, including
Ferris State University. As Michigan has lost manufacturing jobs, the
number of jobs connected to the education and healthcare sectors and the
many supporting roles that accompany them has continued to grow.

“By working together, we can keep the best workers in the state and
attract new talent to Michigan,” said Linda Berauer, director of
Michigan HERC. “Regions known for their large pools of knowledge workers
already have similar HERC organizations. Michigan HERC makes our state
more competitive.”

Jobs include research, professional, executive, administrative and
support positions in academia and their hospital and healthcare
facilities, as well as tenure-track and instructional faculty, and
positions in information technology and the trades. Users may set up and
save multiple profiles with specific search criteria and register to
receive e-mail alerts when new positions that fit their criteria are
posted.

The central location of job postings with links to member campuses,
regional resources, diversity Web sites and aids for dual career
couples, as well as the Web site’s ability to accommodate dual-career
searches, distinguishes Michigan HERC from other employment Web sites.

“The MI-HERC site is unique in that the focus is on the higher education
sector in a specific geographic area with the member schools posting
virtually all of their jobs because they can list all their jobs for
free,'” Berauer said. “On many higher ed sites, universities have to pay
high fees and advertise only a small number of openings. On commercial
job sites, higher ed listings are often pretty random. If someone is
focused on finding a place in the higher education sector in Michigan,
the MI-HERC site will allow them to see what’s available in a good
percentage of institutions with a single click.”

Michigan colleges and universities created HERC to share information and
resources to attract and retain talent, help achieve a diverse
workforce, and reduce costs through joint purchasing arrangements. In
addition to the shared Web site, HERC organizes forums where staff from
member institutions can network and interact, sharing successful methods
and best practices for addressing recruitment and retention issues,
including issues related to placing partners and keeping their staffs
diverse.

Helping dual career couples is a big emphasis of HERC, Berauer added.
With a growing number of two-income couples, human resource staffers
often struggle when they pursue a talented worker whose spouse is in a
field where they might not have an opening. Often they need to look to
other potential employers within the region.

The site also includes links to resources for learning about Michigan’s
regions, relocation aids such as finding housing and schools for
children, and multicultural and lifestyle resources in the state.

The consortium is designed to make it easier to recruit or retain
talented faculty and staff by helping spouses find openings at nearby
colleges or universities within the same region, to create networking
opportunities and share best practices among member institutions through
regular meetings, and to reduce costs through joint purchasing
arrangements.

The first HERC began in northern California, the home of Silicon Valley,
in 2000 and now includes 46 member institutions. There are now HERCs in
other competitive areas where the hunt for talent is at a premium,
including southern California, metro New York/southern Connecticut, New
Jersey, upstate New York, New England and the Greater Chicago area.
HERCs are also planned for metro St. Louis and the Upper Midwest.
Development of a national HERC is underway that will function as a
non-profit service provider to all the regional HERCs.